


What We Call Enabling

by Winterling42



Series: I am also a We [13]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 23:29:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20321308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: Nott is out to try and scratch that itch. She doesn't know it yet, but Jester is only here to help!





	What We Call Enabling

Jester sat back in her chair and fanned herself with her hand of cards. “Is anyone else hot in here?” she looked around at the surly old men whose table she’d invaded, but they only frowned at her and twitched judgemental moustaches in her direction. The hotel parlor was shaded, and cool, with a perfect breeze flowing through the wide south window. But she could also feel stale, humid air clinging to her skin, hot and smelling of people. The excitement of the card game was making her heart beat faster...too fast. Anxiety tapped at the back of her ribs along with the familiar thrill of an impending trick. Jester saw a flash of movement from the foyer, and the prickly urge to _ move _ surged up her spine. “Excuse me for a moment,” she said in her aristocratic Russian, and left both her hand and her chips on the table to chase a shadow. 

There was no transition between one place and another. One moment, she was about to walk out onto a Prague street, and the next she was in a big mall, unmistakably English, next to a woman who couldn’t be much more than a meter and a half tall. Other people pushed past her, or sat on benches, or stood next to industrial fans bigger than they were, panting in the heat. But Jester knew instinctively that the woman in the hooded rain jacket was who she was _ with _, who she was following across continents. 

“Why are you wearing a jacket when it’s so _ hot _?” She skipped up next to the shorter woman and peered under the hood, ignoring the other woman’s flinch. “I’m Jester, by the way. Jester Lavorre.” And if she sang her name a little bit, that was fine. Her name was really pretty, who wouldn’t want to sing it?

“Uhhh, um, I’m...Nott. Hi?”

“You’re not what?” Jester liked her face, with her wide, sharp cheekbones and hooded eyes. No one would call her _ beautiful _ , maybe, but it was an _ interesting _face, and that was more than you could say of most people. “I like your face.” 

The woman had been about to answer Jester’s question; now she looked sharply away and shut her mouth with a snap. They walked in uncomfortable silence for an impossibly long moment. Jester straightened, twisting her hands nervously in her skirt. What had she done wrong? 

Finally, _ finally _ , just when Jester was about to burst out with an all-purpose apology, the little woman next to her said a very short and angry, “Thank you,” that she clearly didn’t mean at _ all _ . She glanced around the crowd, maybe checking to see if anyone else could see Jester. They couldn’t--she’d already learned that with Fjord. But probably it was even weirder if the people here just saw a lady talking to _ herself _. 

“Hey, you didn’t tell me your name,” Jester remembered with a snap. “Also, what aren’t you right now? Not...hungry? Not tired? I know it’s not not hot, because _ whew _.” 

“That’s just my name,” she said with a dismissive shrug. “Nott. With two T’s. ‘Nott the Brave.’” She laughed to herself, a little, but it wasn’t a very nice laugh. Then she looked suspiciously at Jester. “You’re one of _ them _ , aren’t you?” she asked. She reached up absently to bite her nails, then looked at her hand and grimaced. “One of those weirdos I’m like, _ telepathically _connected to.” 

“I guess so.” Jester shrugged and took a few steps sideways, so she could look over the railing into a huge fountain twenty feet below, glittering with coins. “Where are we, anyway?” 

“Bristol,” Nott answered, absently. She kept fiddling with the ends of her coat, flicking the zipper up and down with a little _ click, click _ . “Hey, no offense...Jester, but I, uh, I’ve got...Things to Do, so. If you could scoot on back to _ wherever _\--” 

“Prague,” Jester answered happily, and with a twirl took them back there. She was walking down a street full of people and sunlight. If she stood on her tip-toes, Jester thought she could see the canopies and booths of a market up ahead. “Do you want to go see?” she asked, turning to Nott with a smile. “They’ll have old jewelry and dresses and books and _ pastries _, probably.” 

From under her hood, Jester saw Nott smile just a little. “Maybe later,” she said. “I’ve got this...thing to do, first.” 

“What thing?” Jester asked brightly. “Maybe I can help.” 

“Jester,” Nott was more confident about the name this time. “No offense, but I just met you like five minutes ago--”

“And you already feel like you’ve known me _ forever _, right?” Jester smiled her best smile and fluttered her eyelashes. “If you let me help, I’ll...I’ll buy you a pastry at the market!” 

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Nott said, but eyed Jester more thoughtfully for a second or two. “Alright! First question--can you cause a distraction. That’s visible to other people.” 

Jester had opened her mouth to provide an enthusiastic _ yes _ , but Nott’s qualification made her hesitate. “I don’t _ know _. We could find out, though!” Ideas for various hijinks were already starting to flow. She could pretend to be jumping off the railing into the fountain, or--

“Okay, we’ll try that one later,” Nott said hurriedly. She looked around the crowd again, but this time her gaze caught on someone. Jester leaned over and put the side of her head on top of Nott’s, so she could see who she was looking at. 

A woman in a shiny suit jacket and skirt was headed vaguely in their direction, a jeweled pin on her coat saying “Sarah Lindauer” and “Jarad’s.” 

“Who’s that?”

“No one,” Nott said, her eyes narrowed and her smile distinctly cat-like. “I just like her pin.” 

“Oh. Ooooooh. We’re going to _ steal _ something?!” Jester didn’t _ mean _ for her voice to get so much higher. It just kind of did. 

“Not so _ loud _,” Nott hissed, looking around again as she slunk forward. 

“Okay, okay, okay. You’ll see, I can be _ so _ good at stealing. Once, I took a very famous man’s toupee _ all the way off _ and he didn’t even _ notice _, you know?” 

Nott hummed back an acknowledgement but didn’t really answer. She had pulled her hood up as far as it would go and stumbled forward, moving completely differently than she had before. It wasn’t a sneaking kind of walk, but then, it wasn’t meant to be.

Jester watched from about two feet away as Nott ‘accidentally’ bumped into the jewelry woman, hands darting out a little too quickly to match her drunken “Sorry,” as she tried to steady the woman. 

“_ Excuse _ me,” the lady said, extracting herself from Nott’s grasp with some difficulty. “I’m fine, _ fine _, please stop--trying to help.” She pulled free, straightened her jacket hems, and marched off down the hallway. 

Jester was instantly at Nott’s side, trying to look into her pockets. “Did you get it, did you get it?” 

Nott hustled them both off down a side hall, towards the restrooms. “I couldn’t get the clasp open,” she said, watching Jester’s face closely. After a second, she smiled a conspiratorial grin and opened her hands to reveal...a shiny golden tube of lipstick. “But I _ did _ snag this out of her pocket.” 

“Wow.” Jester breathed out a sigh, lifting up the tube. She opened it to check out the shade and sniffed disdainfully. “Plum would have gone _ terribly _ with her skin anyway. You totally did her a favor.” 

“Yeah?” Nott’s smile got a little wider. And maybe her teeth were too big, maybe her mouth was too wide to fit correctly on her face. But her sharp cheekbones failed to hide the little dimples she got when she was happy enough, and Jester decided she wanted to make her friend smile like that more often. 

“Yeah,” she said, and held out a hand. “Now let’s go look for _ doughnuts _.”


End file.
